A Hiss of Air: Breath and Death Defiance

Arist K.S. Brewer (they/them) joins us with a reading of their upcoming essay on technologies of resuscitation. They are interested in what imaginaries and promises are embedded into the concept of resuscitation, as with CPR, and how the capability to be “revived” is related to a civilized order of life’s preservation. The widespread faith in the ability to reverse death through life-saving CPR doesn’t align with the actual statistics on CPR’s effectiveness, which are estimated at only 17%. Brewer argues that our allegiance to technologies of resuscitation may have more to do with broader ideologies of death defiance, and they posit the CPR doll itself as a potent agent for axioms of medical salvation. The doll, Brewer says, "simulates my own capacity for survival as a mechanistic, linear, and logical process in which each disparate cog of the body-machine is kept functioning by manual intervention until the system ‘reboots’ itself. I place my faith in this perpetuity." 

Our conversation broadens to consider breath, air and atmospheres as mediums for existential threats to survival. Films like Nope and White Noise, as well as Covid and wildfire smoke, have revealed contemporary anxiety around atmospheres and what we might call monstrous air.